The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) engages the Nation’s science community, sponsors scientific research, and develops and deploys satellites and probes in collaboration with NASA’s partners around the world to answer fundamental questions requiring the view from and into space. SMD seeks to understand the origins, evolution, and destiny of the universe and to understand the nature of the strange phenomena that shape it. The SMD goal is to use the unique view from space to study, understand, and improve prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards. Through its nine data centers, NASA provides interdisciplinary Earth science data products, information, services, and tools to improve life here on Earth.

The Research Data Alliance (RDA) builds the social and technical bridges that enable open sharing of data. The RDA vision is researchers and innovators openly sharing data across technologies, disciplines, and countries to address the grand challenges of society.

The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is a laboratory of the Earth-Sun Exploration Division of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and a unit of the Columbia University Earth Institute emphasizing the broad, interdisciplinary study of global change.